grunts67 Diglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5112 days ago 215 posts - 252 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian
| Message 1 of 10 27 June 2010 at 1:15am | IP Logged |
Hello,
I am looking for a method or a comprehensive grammar for my russian as I am a begginer and my current method doesn't give, in my opinion, an adequate grammar rules.
The one I use is Assimil: Le nouveau Russe sans peine. It give me incomplete pieces of russian grammar but I find it lacks a complete and comprehensive explanation.
For exemple, they gave my the differents declinations for the personnel pronom but they don't an explain on when to use the genetive over the datif...
Finally, the future method or grammar will serve as a complement on my current method. I would prefer a French-Russian grammar but if you know an exceptionnal book in English, I could live with that.
Thank you.
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OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5245 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English
| Message 2 of 10 27 June 2010 at 2:11am | IP Logged |
The only French book on Russian that I've had a look at is "40 Leçons pour parler russe". It is organised in three parts: 1. script and pronunciation, 2. verbes, 3. nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. I only browsed through the book but my impression was that this is a very good one. It is offered for 6,55 Euro at amazon.fr, so you can hardly make any mistake with that.
Apart from that I can recommend a few English books. "The New Penguin Russian Course" is quite comprehensive and contains some pieces of information that I haven't found anywhere else. It goes through the grammar rather quickly, which makes it a perfect choice for review and repetition.
"The Cortina Method Russian" is already out of print, as it seems, but some vendors still have it in store. Watch this for a review.
Another book from the 60s and out of print is "Russian Made Simple" by Eugene Jackson. I was lucky to get one for £0.01 (no typo) that had never been opened and only sat on a shelf for 20 years. What I like most about this book is that it often introduces words in opposite pairs or groups of words that span a range (like: never, rarely, sometimes, often, always). It doesn't introduce a huge vocabulary but puts more emphasis on the core of the language.
BTW, I tried the current Assimil course with French base as well and threw it into the bin when I had reached lesson 60. "Sans peine" is a barefaced lie. The only good things about this course are the audio quality of the recordings and the pronunciation of the speakers. But they should have been given some better texts, not this brainless stand-up comedian junk. Get the '51 version of Assimil.
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grunts67 Diglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5112 days ago 215 posts - 252 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian
| Message 3 of 10 27 June 2010 at 2:22am | IP Logged |
OlafP wrote:
BTW, I tried the current Assimil course with French base as well and threw it into the bin when I had reached lesson 60. "Sans peine" is a barefaced lie. The only good things about this course are the audio quality of the recordings and the pronunciation of the speakers. But they should have been given some better texts, not this brainless stand-up comedian junk. Get the '51 version of Assimil. |
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Do you mean the Le russe: sans peine (2009) or Le Nouveau russe sans peine (2005) as they have a different structure ? The first one have 100 lecons and the second one has 70 lecons. Right now, I am doing the second one and I have to say it's really not 'sans peine' (without a toil).
I was wondering which on you use since I was wondering if the new method was any better. I will try to get hold of a assimil 1971 edition and buy or found the audio. I will also check your suggestion.
As for the 2005 edition, it can work as one of my friend has completed method (three times) and have reach a intermediate level. He also had the chance to go to Russia and Ukrain a couple of month (6 month in total) which help him a little. Even with that, our common friend, a russian native speaker, have to speak slowly to him, if he don't, he isn't able to understand what he said and our friend correct it pronunciation on almost a daily basis.
Thank you for the suggestion, it's appreciated.
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hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6043 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian
| Message 4 of 10 27 June 2010 at 2:49am | IP Logged |
If you was a good written grammar, the best complete Russian grammar in English is A Comprehensive Russian Grammar2nd Edition by Terence Wade, published by Blackwell Publishing. They also sell a workbook. A Russian Grammar Workbookby Terence Wade.
An introduction selfstudy text would be in the Living Language Ultimate series.
If you want a great basic grammar in English, download the free computer program called Golden Russian Deluxe. It had clear short explainations and examples. If you download the program, you simply click on the grammar table. You will get a listing. Select the point you want to learn. It will give a fine explaination. http://www.russkiymir.ru/russkiymir/en/education/news/news00 01.html
Example:
§180. The order of words
(Порядок слов)
1. The word order in Russian is free.
Subject Predicate Object (Dative, Accusative)
Учитель объясняет ученикам новый урок.
Teacher explains to pupils a new lesson.
The members of the sentence that are emphasized stand at the beginning or at the end of the sentence:
Вчера мы были в парке. We were in the park yesterday.
Complete yourselves:
Мы были вчера... Были мы вчера... Вчера мы были... В парке мы были...
Мы были в парке... Были мы в парке... Вчера мы в парке... В парке мы вчера...
Мы вчера были... Были вчера мы... Вчера были мы... В парке были мы...
Мы вчера в парке... Были вчера в парке... Вчера были в парке... В парке были вчера...
Мы в парке были... Были в парке мы... Вчера в парке мы... В парке вчера мы...
Мы в парке вчера.... Были в парке вчера... Вчера в парке были... В парке вчера были...
And each variant may take different senses expressed by intonation.
The words именно (namely), как раз (just, exactly) may be used to emphasize:
Он сделал это. It was he who did it.
Это сделал он. It was he who did it.
Именно он сделал это. It was he who did it.
2. The interrogative sentence without interrogative word has the order of the narrative sentence and is pronounced with interrogative intonation:
Narrative Interrogative
Он дома. Он дома?
He is at home. Is he at home?
In Russian answers may be short and full.
- Да. (Он дома.) - Yes, he is.
- Нет. (Он не дома.) - No, he isn't.
- Да нет. (Он не дома.) - But no, he isn't.
3. Sentences of exclamation:
Какие красивые цветы! What beautiful flowers!
Скоро Новый год! It is New Years soon!
Какой сегодня прекрасный день! What a beautiful day it is today!
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Spiderkat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5622 days ago 175 posts - 248 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian
| Message 5 of 10 27 June 2010 at 4:42am | IP Logged |
A French grammar book, then you could try "Grammaire pratique du russe by Anne Boulanger" which comes with an exercises book "Grammaire pratique du russe, exercices avec corrigés".
The grammar book mentioned by hobbitofny is very good but maybe with too many details and too complete for a beginner. Here are less thicker books that I think for a start would be a better choice, "Oxford Russian grammar & verbs" or even "Teach Yourself Russian grammar".
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shmjay Newbie United States Joined 5172 days ago 12 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, German, Spanish
| Message 6 of 10 27 June 2010 at 3:26pm | IP Logged |
If you don’t mind a book from the Soviet era, look for anything by Nina Potapova, such as Fifty lessons in Russian. Her books were standard texts, and so were also published in French. Le russe : manuel de la langue russe and Apprenons le russe seem to be her French books. Of course, you will have to look in used book stores, on the Internet, etc. for them.
Edited by shmjay on 27 June 2010 at 3:30pm
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OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5245 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English
| Message 7 of 10 27 June 2010 at 9:22pm | IP Logged |
grunts67 wrote:
Do you mean the Le russe: sans peine (2009) or Le Nouveau russe sans peine (2005) as they have a different structure ? The first one have 100 lecons and the second one has 70 lecons. |
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I meant the 2009 version with 100 lessons. I don't know the previous version with 70 lessons, so I can't compare them. Looks like neither is worth the money. Let's hope they fire some of their managers at Assimil before it's too late (sell them to Rosetta Stone where they can't do any damage) and get back to delivering quality.
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translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6729 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 8 of 10 27 June 2010 at 9:56pm | IP Logged |
This one is awesome if you can find it. It presents Russian grammar through pictures:
Russian Grammar Illustrated
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